Prescription charges for the over sixties

Would be fairer for all if we paid £5 per item, unless having proof of an income related benefit - then free.

Would discourage us from getting NHS to pay for very cheap items and encourage us to only get what we value. Retain 'bulk' discount for those who do need a lot of medications.

jaylucy

When I turned 60, I just wasn't charged from that date - previously I had paid monthly for my prescriptions on the season ticket system that was basically the same as paying for just one item (at the time I had 5 different items)
If they are thinking about this, what about the other "benefits" that start when you turn 60? Free sight tests and NHS dental treatment?
If any items were cheaper than £9 in the past, my GP always used to tell me to buy from the chemists over the counter to save money!

NHS dental treatment isn't free for people over 60.

At the moment I am on seven different medications, I would not want to pay for them! The tax system needs changing so that things like free prescriptions and bus passes are classed as a "benefit in kind" thus would be much cheaper to do than means testing.

People in receipt of carers allowance and caring 24/7 for someone but claiming no other benefits have to pay for prescriptions and dental treatment. I have always thought this is very wrong.

wrt 'cheap items' part of the problem is 'some' people in care settings need prescription labelled things in order to use them, like aqueous cream for example or paracetamol.

As long as the whole of the United kingdom takes a hit and not just England as we are the only ones paying for any perscriptions.Dont worry there will be cuts into all services by every governmentvdept and local authorities in the future to pay for this covid debacle.
As for our grandchildren and great grandchildren they will be taxed to death to pay for it!!!

We wouldn’t mind paying at all, as we are comfortable financially. However, as with anything else, I would worry about those who can’t afford it, and would always help anyone we knew about.

They mention deferring it until the person is 66 - thats the age at which people are currently getting the state pension so that seems reasonable to me.
Presumably the current concessions for people of a lower age will still apply - like exemption on specified medical grounds, and for people on certain benefits.

But maybe a whole reform of the prescription system would be fair.

If they stopped prescribing cheap drugs like paracetamol they would save a fortune!

Speaking as someone who lives on the full State Pension and therefore doesn't qualify for Pension Credit, due to being just a few pounds per week over the limit, there must be quite a lot of us who would lose the various benefits - prescriptions, bus passes, annual heating allowance - and really be affected by the loss.

If the government wants to find money to help after the pandemic, I suggest that they start looking in the pockets of Dido Harding, Matt Hancock's mates and all the others who did extremely well out of Covid. I think that they have a colossal nerve to squander billions of public money and then look to us to make up the shortfall.

StephLP In NI many surgeries have stopped prescribing painkillers and other meds which can be bought OTC and cost much more to prescribe. And also many people who are entitled to free scripts were getting them free for other family members who don't qualify for exemption. Its ridiculous that people would do this for something as simple as paracetamol. Someone further up thread said many aren't even taken. I think a charge would prevent all this abuse but not £9.
I don't think the government takes enough care deciding who should pay and who shouldnt. It needs a complete overhaul.
Also many people wouldn't mind paying more contributions if they knew it went directly to the NHS.

There are lots of anomalies in the prescription charge system. I have been exempt from charges as I am on regular medication which qualifies me for free prescriptions. At one time I also had a card to allow free prescriptions because I was claiming tax credits, so amongst the working poor. When I passed 60 I no longer needed these exemption cards and now I'm retired at 66 so hopefully won't be charged.

What always puzzled me was that my regular medication exemption also qualified me for free prescriptions if I needed antibiotics or some other 'one-off' treatment. Obviously I didn't complain as I wasn't well off and mostly had the exemption because of tax credits anyway but it doesn't make sense for some situations. It is probably cheaper to extend the exemptions to save costly administration. Some people on regular medication are not exempt - it depends what it is for.

The cut off for payment recognised the older members of population are mire likely to be ill and could incur costs for medications. Not all of those who are not on benefits can afford to pay for prescriptions. NI and Scotland do not charge for prescriptions. This move was decided many years ago allegedly because the cost of administering the payment system outweighed having a no charge system. Wonder how many businesses could survive on that principle.

I like many thousands of other gals my age(65) ISH are currently without our pensions that we were expecting and for which we were paying a rate for all our working lives. A gap of 7years means I'll be writing off (gov stealing ) over £64k in total. So, why should we be slapped again with prescription charges? .why does everyone moan "poor youngsters) ? We all HAD to work we HAD to pay tax NI and some of us pension contributions as well , no choice. No benefits for us! We were told we would retire at 60.we were paying a rate as if we WOULD. Retire at 60. We have been conned and robbed of our contributions. When the "youngsters" have worked full time 40 hours/week with 21 days' leave or less, no foreign holidays no new cars no fancy houses as we were all struggling to pay for 15% mortgages and HP etc etc whilst trying to finance feeding clothing children whilst under threat of instant dismissal for- well anything and nothing really! Prior to current employment laws being introduced I was vistim to what's now called "unfair dismissal" no less than 4 times! And still had to pay bills .andonandon... We bloody well DESERVE our pensions .THEY'RE OUR SAVINGS that we DID WITHOUT an awful lot to secure a comfortable retirement. When the moaners have done all that , then they can criticise. Why have we got so much?? BECAUSE WE'VE BEEN WORKING FOR 40YEARS+ NON STOP FOR IT!!!!

Don't get me started on dental charges! I have excellent beautiful teeth and have looked after them all my life . I'm NHS dental patient. I very very rarely need anything doing yet I'm still charges 23£ for dentist to look in my gob then declare"well they're all ok and you've got the best gums I've seen in a long time!" Really? What about discount for those of us who have saved NHS dentistry £100000s ok ver our lives by actually looking after our own teeth!?! There's not going to be many aged 70-80 with a perfectly sound full set of gnashers so why not give us a thanks with no charges? And £250 for varifocals? Duh! Didn't need specs til 43 and now it appears I need new pair every 2years?at this rate I'll be curating a collection of obsolete spex worth around£10k....do we get trade-in? Nope. Even though my old specs could be donated to those who may be able to get use of them in less wealthy countries?

I'm over 60 but also have an exemption card for the medication I take so wouldnt affect me either way

I'm 63 and get free prescriptions due to having my thyroid removed due to cancer. I will be on medication for the rest of my life. I am also a WASPI woman and cannot get my state pension until I'm 66. I am not well off and live on a very small NHS pension which I managed to accrue in my last 10 years of working life. Many older women, who did not have well paid work, or didn't work full time whilst bringing up children could not afford to pay into private pensions, especially if, like me, you were also a single mum. Unlike young mothers of today, I did not get tax credits, housing benefit, or any other benefits available today. So, before penalising women over 60 the government should look into saving money by shaking up the benefits system. There are many young people bringing up families who have never had any intention of working and now have the perfect excuse not to. And as to how 'hard up' they are, including the ones who do work, its a matter of perspective. They say they are broke but still have the latest mobile phones on expensive contracts, sky TV packages, and drive 'new' cars paid for on monthly contracts, not to mention the take out coffees and meals that have become 'normal'. When I was a 'hard up' young working mum, I couldn't afford to keep the heating on after the children had gone to bed and I drove a rusty old car. So I think I deserve my free prescription - apart from 'family allowance ' its the only thing I've ever claimed off the government yet paid my taxes since I was 16 years of age.

I’ve thought for a while that everyone should pay a small amount. Possibly £1 per prescription with maybe more than one item on it. I think everyone could afford that and it would save all the administration costs relating to who gets it free and who does it.
The danger might be that the price would gradually creep up but it seems a much simpler system to me. I think I read somewhere that at least 70% of prescriptions are not paid for.

Will cost us a small fortune for DH meds if we have to pay!!

I dare say I’ve said this before on here, but a Swedish friend told me that back home, everyone pays a small amount for prescriptions (adults at least, not sure about children) with an annual cap for those who need a lot.

Even her dad, who was over 90 and not very well off, had to pay.
They also pay something for A&E visits, and towards the ‘board’ element of hospital stays.
And this is Sweden, popularly supposed to be a socialist utopia.

The trouble here in the U.K. is that ‘free at the point of use’ (except for prescriptions, obvs.) is such a sacred cow that I doubt that any govt. will ever have the guts to change it.

But without tax rises, the system as it stands is evidently unsustainable. The NHS is a very different animal from when it was first born - so many more sophisticated and complex treatments, not to mention expensive drugs, than there ever were then.

How’s about those who feel like paying give a donation to the NHS. Problem solved.

Huge amounts of NHS money could be saved by ending the system whereby if you suffer from an ailment the medication for which is not charged for then all your prescription items are given to you free of charge. I was diagnosed with epilepsy at 17, for which I take two different tablets and must do for life. The epilepsy medication is on the ‘free’ list. I also have asthma and various other jolly ailments and the net result of that is that I have, and have had for decades, seven prescription items each month (sometimes six if I haven’t needed an inhaler quite so much and don’t need to re-order - I’m scrupulous about not stock piling these medicines given to me). I have always thought this system is iniquitous. There are people who can’t afford a medicine their doctor tells them to take, which he/she considers they need, and there is no cheaper equivalent. Some life-threatening conditions don’t qualify for free medication - I had a friend years ago whose mother had a serious heart condition but didn’t get free prescriptions. A bad asthma attack would be more likely to kill me than a seizure but medication wouldn’t be free. For decades I was in very highly paid work and felt the system which insisted on giving me these freebies was appalling. Since passing state pension age everything was of course free anyway (though I was still working full time at same job) but over the years the NHS has given me vast amounts of free drugs whilst I was a very high earner, albeit of course paying NI and high taxes. If this part of the system were addressed, which I feel could be done far more easily and cost-effectively than the administrative palaver of means testing, the NHS would save a great deal of money and there need be no argument about over-60s, working or not, getting free prescriptions. But then my impression of the NHS over many years, despite receiving excellent care for which I am truly grateful, is that they excel at wasting taxpayers’ money whilst there are unfortunate folk just above the benefits threshold who can’t afford medication and of course millions on waiting lists, some with conditions which require immediate treatment.

How's about deciding they are really important and giving us all our prescriptions for nothing?

(See: Scotland and Wales )

As someone who missed out on getting my pension at 60 and not that well off, I rejoiced to get my prescriptions ‘for free’. We really don’t get much in the way of benefits.

This is disgraceful. My brother-in-law is only 62 still working full-time he won't be receiving state pension until at least 67. He has a lot of health issues including a heart condition . He is taking a lot of medication. I dread to think how much his prescriptions would cost him each month. Why do a lot of people think we pensioners retired or otherwise are well off! I wouldn't go anywhere much if l didn't have my bus pass.